ISSUE 1 | 2022
38
KEY SECTORS AND DEALS Energy, Mining & Utilities led the way again in sector activity with five deals, followed by TMT and Consumer with four deals each, Pharma, Medical & Biotech and Business Services with two deals each and finally Industrials & Chemicals and Financial Services, each with one deal. In terms of geography, South Africa accounted for nine of the quarter’s 19 deals, with the balance spread across other counties including Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Namibia and Senegal. It is again interesting to note that 12 of the 19 deals involved acquisitions by foreign parties from, among other countries, the USA, Canada, the UK and China. Heineken N.V. concluded two transactions as part of the execution of their global strategy for Africa, which aims to: • Strengthen its #2 position in South Africa, the largest market in Africa, with a unique multi-category portfolio • Acquire control of the beer market leader in Namibia
benefits. Another big reason for delisting is corporate M&A activity. The past few years have seen a flurry of activity with large multi-national companies looking to acquire attractively priced local assets. Some of the more recent high-profile deals in the region have included: Milco’s acquisition of Clover, PepsiCo’s acquisition of Pioneer Foods and Volaris’ acquisition of Adapt IT. And looking forward there are some big deals in the pipeline for 2022, which include Heineken’s proposed acquisition of Distell, DP World’s proposed acquisition of Imperial; and Standard Bank’s proposed acquisition of Liberty. In addition, there is much speculation about the future of Long4life, Onelogix Group, Ascendis and the Bell Equipment group on the JSE, to name just a few. As mentioned earlier, JSE entity volume is shrinking at an alarming rate but the total market capitalisation has increased significantly. This is partly due to consolidation activity in the Energy, Mining & Utilities sector, which has resulted in fewer but much larger mining companies being listed on the JSE.
• Strengthen and optimise its
footprint across Southern Africa to accelerate growth. In the first transaction, Heineken N.V. acquired 25% of Heineken South Africa from Namibia Breweries Limited (NBL) for a reported USD 29m and the second saw Heineken acquire Ohlthaver & List Group of Companies’ (O&L) 50.01% interest in NBL Investment Holdings (Proprietary) Limited (NBLIH), the controlling shareholder at 59.4% in NBL,
NICK LAZANAKIS HEAD OF CORPORATE FINANCE
nlazanakis@bdo.co.za
GUY STEELE HEAD OF M&A
gsteele@bdo.co.za
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